Cooking apparatuses (cooking devices) have become more and more intelligent in the recent past by integrating multiple functions into the apparatus. For example, modern cooking devices integrate functions, such as heating, mixing, boiling, pureeing, etc., in a single multi-function cooking device. A cooking device typically has to be operated with appropriate technical parameter settings (e.g., temperature settings, rotational speed settings, etc.) to ensure proper operation. Proper operation of a cooking device as used hereinafter includes correct, safe and/or secure operation for producing reproducible cooking results with the cooking apparatus with regards to a particular food product. A reproducible cooking result of a particular food product is achieved when the particular food product is produced in a repeatable manner, in repetitions with quality/quantiles within a predefined tolerance range. Such a food product may include multiple food components which may be served in one or more courses of a menu.
Sometimes, the functions of such a multi-functional cooking apparatus are not sufficient to prepare the entire food product without additional kitchen appliances. In other words, sometimes the preparation of an entire food product may include the use of complementary kitchen appliances in addition to the cooking apparatus. The additional kitchen appliances may be used for performing cooking steps (e.g., operations) involving the food product or a component of the food product separated (remotely) from the multi-functional cooking apparatus. Such kitchen appliances are referred to as “remote kitchen appliances” hereinafter. “Remote” in this context therefore stands for physically not integrated with the cooking apparatus.
A desired cooking result of a particular food product is defined as the cooking result which is provided by the cooking apparatus in cooperation with the one or more remote kitchen appliances when being operated in accordance with a predefined recipe program for the food product under predefined operating conditions of the cooking apparatus and the remote appliances (e.g., maximum heating/cooling power, heating/cooling gradient, etc.). A reproducible cooking result, as used hereinafter, is a cooking result which deviates from a desired cooking result less than a predefined tolerance range. In other words, the desired cooking result can be described by measurable parameters such as for example, consistency, shape, color, temperature, timely availability, and/or taste of the cooked food product. If such parameters fall within the predefined tolerance range the produced food product is defined as a reproduction of the desired food product, and therefore the processing of the recipe program by the cooking apparatus leads to a reproducible cooking result.
The actual operating conditions of the cooking apparatus and/or remote kitchen appliances while processing a recipe program may deviate from the ideal conditions which are used as the bases for the recipe program. For example, a remote kitchen appliance foreseen by the recipe program may not be available at all or only a substitute appliance may be available which differs from the appliance on which the recipe is based with regards to the technical specifications (technical capabilities). For example, a remote kitchen appliance used for applying food processing steps to a component of the food product may show a different technical behavior than expected by the recipe program. For example, a heating control of an available oven does not reach the maximum temperature expected by the recipe program or the heating power is not sufficient to get to the desired temperature at the speed expected by the recipe program.
Any such deviating operating condition will typically lead to a situation that the cooking result under such deviating operating conditions substantially deviates from the desired cooking result under the conditions because subsequent steps of the recipe program are affected negatively. In other words, the achieved cooking result under the deviating operating conditions may typically fall outside the predefined tolerance range for accomplishing reproducible meals.
Therefore, it is a problem to preserve reproducibility of cooking results for a food product when executing a corresponding recipe program by the multi-function cooking apparatus involving one or more actually available remote kitchen appliances.